The job of a putter is to strike a golf ball, desirably, with its front face perpendicular to the path of a gentle swing and to cause the ball to roll along on the ground until it falls into the hole. Generally, it is desired that the golf ball be hit by the “sweet spot” of the club. The sweet spot is a specific point on the clubface where the bulk of the weight of the club head is concentrated, or the center of gravity of the club head. It is the preferred spot on the clubface with which to strike the ball because typically, a ball hit on the exact sweet spot will achieve a desired distance and optimum trajectory. Thus, most golfers regard it to be an ideal connection area for the ball. Generally, the sweet spot of the putter is at the center of the clubface or somewhere about equal distance from the toe and the heel. Contact with the ball at the sweet spot typically feels best to most golfers.
There is a wide array of known shapes and designs of putters. The arrangement and design of a putter hosel body and the shaft terminating in the hosel body may affect the golfer's ability to strike the ball at the sweet spot or to achieve desired distance and optimum trajectory. With some putters, when the hosel body and shaft are in alignment with the center of the head, they block a golfer's view during a put. With other putters, the hosel body stems from an end of the club and is thus removed from the center of the club. Such putters may lack the balance necessary to impart the full force of the club against the golf ball. Further, some putters may transmit excessive amounts of vibration to the golf ball. In such cases, the golfer tends to have less control than desired when striking the golf ball.
Several types of putters, with various hosel body and/or shaft designs and arrangements, attempting to overcome problems of the prior art are described as follows. U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,706 to DePriest describes a putter having a head enclosing a weighted mass with an aperture extending from a heel end to a central portion and with a portion spaced from the front edge of the mass for receiving a terminal end of a shaft. The head has a preponderance of the mass at a toe end with the shaft affixed to the heel end.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,146 to Mills describes a golf putter in which a front heel face of the putter defines a bore for receiving an end of a hosel body, the hosel body having a substantially right-angled bend, the free end of the hosel body being connected to a shaft. The hosel body is rotatable relative to the bore.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,421 to Sery describes a polar balanced putter having a high density material in the toe and head portions and a low density material in the center portions. A hosel body is connected to an end of the putter body by a joint bar.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,288 to Jimenez et al. describes a hosel body attached to the back side of the putter blade such that the golfer is able to view the back of the ball.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved golf putter.
It is a further object to provide a new and improved hosel body and club head for a golf putter.